TruGreen names Kurt Kane as CEO, president

TruGreen has appointed Kurt Kane as its president and CEO, effective immediately.

Kane succeeds John Cowles, who is leaving TruGreen.

"We are pleased to welcome Kurt to TruGreen and believe his brand-building skillset and proven ability to lead and motivate employees will serve TruGreen well as it enters this next chapter of growth," says John Compton, TruGreen chairman and an operating partner at Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, TruGreen's majority investment partner. "Kurt's 'people first' leadership approach and commitment to innovative customer engagement will help TruGreen continue to deepen its associate and customer relationships across the neighborhoods we serve with industry leading and innovative lawn care.

READ MORE: TruGreen ranked as the third-largest company on our Top 100 list last year

"We thank John Cowles for his many contributions to TruGreen's success over the past few years and we wish him the best in his future endeavors," Compton adds.

Kane has more than 20 years of experience driving increased employee engagement and customer satisfaction to achieve strong growth objectives in competitive markets. Kane most recently served as president, U.S., and chief commercial officer at The Wendy's Company. In this role, he led all aspects of Wendy's U.S. business, which during his tenure grew to include nearly 5,900 restaurants and increased sales from $9 to $11 billion. Among his key accomplishments in this position were the development and implementation of strategic plans that drove the highest same restaurant sales growth achieved by the Wendy's brand in more than 15 years, reinventing the culture, structure, and mindset of the U.S. operations team, and successfully launching breakfast, which delivered approximately $750 million in incremental sales during its first year.

As Wendy's executive vice president, chief concept and marketing officer from 2015 until 2019, Kane led the development of a new brand positioning and purpose driven advertising that reversed declines in 21 key brand equity metrics and drove digital and social engagement efforts to deliver communications that resulted in Wendy's being named "Digital Marketer of the Year" by AdAge.

"I am excited to join TruGreen and collaborate with all of my new colleagues to help TruGreen deepen its associate and customer engagement and continue on its strong growth trajectory," Kane says. "TruGreen is an established yet dynamic and forward-thinking consumer brand, and I'm looking forward to helping our team energize our outstanding front-line associates to create new ways for customers to interact with TruGreen and continue to receive the very best science-based lawn care in the industry."

Before joining Wendy's in 2015, Kane held senior management roles at YUM! Brands, where he led and motivated frontline, service-oriented colleagues in the execution of innovative strategies to achieve significant growth at YUM!'s licensed brand Pizza Hut both in the U.S. and globally across 95 countries worldwide. Prior to his tenure at YUM!, Kane held increasingly senior executive positions at Frito-Lay, Molson Coors Brewing Company, and Procter & Gamble. He served as a Platoon Leader, Air Defense Artillery, in the United States Army and earned a Bachelor of Science from the United States Military Academy and a Master of Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin.